Lows in the 40s. In May. I'll take it.

The cold front that blew through the city this afternoon is expected to push lows into the 40s tomorrow and this weekend, and Eric Berger thinks records could be broken:

Now let’s jump to Friday and Saturday. The record cold temperature on Friday (May 3) is 47 degrees, set in 1978, and for Saturday it is 44 degrees, also set in 1978. So we have a good chance of setting a record low on tomorrow morning.

Interestingly, for the entire month of May Houston has only ever recorded one day with a temperature below 45 degrees.  That is the 44 degree low temperature from May 4, 1978.  So a temperature of 43 degrees or lower this weekend would be the coldest May temperature Houston has ever had.

Works for me. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I'll take any cool I can get this time of year. The past several days have been humid with highs in the 80s and at this point its only a matter of days before we see highs in the 90s, as we did at this time last year.

Last year at this time highs were 90 degrees, lows were muggy at 70 degrees and a steamy summer was setting in.
This weekend, in contrast, will be exquisite. After the cold mornings discussed above, highs on Saturday and Sunday should rise into the mid-70s, with almost entirely clear skies on Saturday, and mostly sunny skies on Sunday.
The air will also be mostly dry rather than mostly humid.
It’s almost certainly the last weekend of high temperatures in the 70s until October, so don’t waste this weather.

"Almost certainly," as in, barring some sort of miracle, this is the best weather we're going to see for another five and a half months. We might get a "cool" front between now and then that knocks the humidity down for a few days, but otherwise,

Earlier this evening, I spent several minutes in the back yard, sipping coffee and watching Attila run around. I listened to the leaves rustle. I felt the crisp, autumn-like air buffet my skin. It was awesome.

Not looking forward to the summer.

From near death to first round pick

If you don't know the story about D.J. Hayden, the UH Cougar football player that narrowly avoided death after a freak injury last fall and went on the be picked in the first round of the NFL Draft last Thursday, you should watch the following segment from ESPN.

Actually, even if you do know the story, you should watch it. Because it's amazing.

Prepare for a fare war

A few weeks ago I mentioned that JetBlue was inaugurating service between Houston Hobby and Boston Logan in July.

Apparently that didn't sit well with Southwest, because this was on their website a few days ago:

Expect to see some cheap flights from Hobby to New England this summer...

The Aeros are leaving town

I'm not a huge hockey fan and over the years I've only attended a handful of their games. Nevertheless, I really hate to hear that the Houston Aeros are moving to Des Moines, Iowa.

RIP 1994 - 2013 We'll miss you guys!

The Aeros began play in 1994 at Lakewood Church Compaq Center The Summit as a member of the International Hockey League. They later moved to the American Hockey League and became the minor-league affiliate of the NHL's Minnesota Wild, had been around for 19 years. The team took its name from the WHA's Houston Aeros, which played in the 1970s and whose players included hockey legend Gordie Howe.

"Our organization has enjoyed tremendous support from the loyal, passionate hockey fans in Houston since 2001," Aeros general manager Jim Mill said.

"There is a great hockey history in Houston, beginning with the Apollos in 1965, and continuing with the Aeros in the WHA, IHL and AHL. We are honored to have been a part of this hockey tradition."

The Aeros were left with few options when negotiations for a new lease with the Toyota Center failed to come together.

Both the Wild and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority were unsuccessful in finding a suitable alternative location for the Aeros to continue playing in the Bayou City.

Put another way: Toyota Center is the only commercially viable hockey arena in this city, and Rockets owner Les Alexander used that advantage to screw the Aeros right out of town. As if I need another reason to hate that guy.

Hopefully the AHL will retain the rights to the Houston Aeros name, just in case somebody else tries to bring hockey back to Houston in the future. But, as of now, this city is now the largest in the country without any sort of professional hockey team, NHL or minor league. The Houston Press has more.

Because I like to blog about the weather

This time of year, I'm thankful for every cold front that rolls through town (like the one that came through earlier today, which along with cooler temperatures and a lot of wind brought a bit of much-needed rain), because I know that that it's only a matter of weeks before the misery of the Houston summer begins.

With that said, this cartoon (it appeared on Facebook without attribution, so all credit goes to whomever actually drew it) very aptly describes what today was like here in Houston:

It's going to get down into the low 40s tonight, and a beautiful weekend is supposedly on tap. So enjoy it while you can!

Horrific video of plant explosion in West, Texas

I'm a bit annoyed at this guy, not just because he put himself and his daughter in danger by getting so close to the fertilizer plant when it was on fire, but also because he held his phone vertically instead of horizontally. (It's a pet peeve of mine, especially since he would have captured the explosion better if he had held his phone the right way.) Anyway, what he got is scary enough as it is...
I was especially worried about the girl: did she suffer hearing loss as a result of the explosion? Earlier today I heard through a friend of a friend of a Facebook friend that both are okay. I hope that's true.

At last count, 35 people are dead in the blast. Here's what you can do to help. And props to the Czech Stop for taking care of the rescuers. I've stopped there many times on my travels between Austin/Temple and Dallas/Denton.

No more explosions this week. Please.

When things break

First, it was my 46" HDTV. The left side of the screen began flickering intermittently, making it difficult to watch anything.

Not a big deal, because there are two TVs in this household and Game of Thrones is just about the only thing I'm watching right now anyway. So we swapped Michelle's TV for mine in the living room and put mine aside until I have the time and money to get it fixed. Which will probably not be until right before football season starts.

Then, the air conditioning in my car quit working. One day it was blowing cold air, and the next day it wasn't. It's possible that a coil got punctured and the freon leaked out, but given that I've already had one electrical issue with this car, I'm willing to bet that this is an electrical problem as well.

Again, it's not a big deal. The AC at least decided to quit now, while it's still relatively cool outside, as opposed to, say, August, when its failure would have been truly traumatic. More importantly, the car is still under warranty. I'll get it fixed when I take the car in for its 30,000-mile servicing in a few weeks.

(Since this is the second problem I’ve had with this relatively new car, I’m reconsidering whether I want to keep it once the lease is up. But that's a discussion for later.)

But then, last week, almost six years to the day since I bought it, my iMac quit working. As in, it wouldn't turn on at all. No screen, no fan, no hard drive. Nothing. Power simply wasn't getting to the computer.

I can live without a TV. I can live without air conditioning in my car, at least for now. But I cannot live without a home computer.

I lugged the non-functioning machine to the Apple Store in Highland Village. The guy at the Genius Bar diagnosed the problem as a bad power supply unit, but said that they no longer carried replacement parts for my particular model of iMac. I would need to take it somewhere else to get it repaired, and that would cost several hundred dollars (assuming that the correct PSU for my particular model of computer could be found at all).

Which left me to think: do I really want to spend money to get an increasingly-obsolete six-year-old computer fixed, or should I just go ahead and get a new one? One with a faster processor, more memory, a larger hard drive, and a bigger screen?

I have to admit, it wasn't a hard decision to make, even if the hit to my savings account was somewhat painful.

Say hello to my new 27" iMac, and another six years of happy computing.

If it is true that bad things happen in threes, then hopefully my stuff will stop breaking for awhile.

What it was like to fly (and stay at the Shamrock Hotel) in 1957

Via the 1940 Air Terminal Museum's Facebook Page, some (silent) 16" film taken from a traveler to Houston in 1957:


The cameraman is flying into Houston on an Eastern Airlines DC-7. Clearly visible are the Huey P. Long bridge across the Mississippi in Baton Rouge, refineries along the Port of Houston, the San Jacinto Monument, the swimming pool at the old Shamrock Hotel, and what is now known as Hobby Airport (which was then known as Houston International Airport; it would be another decade from the time this film was taken before Intercontinental would open).

The Houston footage ends around halfway through the film, but at the 3:40 mark there're some nice shots of Manhattan.

Notice that there is no door to the cockpit in any of the airplanes the cameraman is flying in. Air travel was much different back then.

Very cool!

JetBlue adds non-stops between Hobby and Boston

Another major city is now directly accessible from Hobby Airport:

JetBlue Airways, Boston’s largest airline with more flights than any other carrier at Logan International Airport (BOS), today announced it will be adding two daily flights between Boston’s Logan International Airport and Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) starting July 25, 2013. To celebrate, customers can now book sale fares from $49 one way between Boston and Houston through April 2, 2013 at jetblue.com for travel between September 3 and October 9, 2013 (blackout dates apply).  

"Houston welcomes the new nonstop flights between Hobby Airport and Boston this summer," said Mario C. Diaz, Houston Airport System Director. "The growth of JetBlue in the Houston market demonstrates the strength of our local economy.”

This is a logical move on JetBlue's part, considering their major presence at Boston Logan as well as the lack of direct flights between that city and Hobby Airport. But it's also strategic; thanks to its merger with AirTran, Southwest (which, of course, is Hobby's dominant carrier) is increasing its presence at Logan, suggesting that it could be just a matter of time before they introduce HOU-BOS service of their own. JetBlue seeks to get a jump on their potential competition, as well as expand their presence in the Houston market, by adding this service.

It's also another option for local flyers. Up until now, the only way to get from Houston to Boston without changing planes was to fly United out of Bush Intercontinental.

If cable and internet providers had to tell the truth...

...their commercials would look something like this (NSFW language):



(Hat tip: Bucks vs Bytes)